A beer with your bait

The owner of a modest fishing shop in the Brewery District wants to build a bar to sell beer with the bait.

A little nightcap to go with your night crawlers.

The owner of a modest fishing shop in the Brewery District wants to build a bar to sell beer with the bait.

A little nightcap to go with your night crawlers.

"We want to open this thing up and have a little fun with it," said Bill Wentzel, who has run R&R Sports Headquarters at 781 S. Front St. for more than 30 years.

He wants to build a 450-square-foot patio out back for the summer months and carve out 300 square feet inside to sell beer, wine and maybe some sandwiches and pizza from about 4 p.m. to midnight. It'll be small -- 15 seats inside and 18 outside.

"Everything will be real nice. First-class," the 70-year-old Wentzel said.

The problem is, some neighbors don't want it, fearing more parking headaches, noise and crime. Wentzel lost a fight over parking last week: The city said he needs seven spaces if he wants to open the bar and patio; he didn't want to add any parking.

"We're very happy we won that," said Sean Cowan, who lives on W. Kossuth Street. "We're very concerned he's not taking into consideration the residents."

"I understand people's concerns," Wentzel said. He lives behind the bait shop on Bank Street and owns three more houses around the store.

So he's not going to do anything to hurt his own property values or his neighbors', he said. But after all, he added, the area is called the Brewery District.

Wentzel's proposal again illustrates the conflict between nightspots and the growing number of residents in what was once one of the city's major entertainment districts.

Plank sees it from both sides. He represented Wentzel before the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment last week but also represents Liberty Place apartments, the source of complaints about Major Woody's, a Brewery District nightclub.

Whenever homes are near businesses, such conflicts come up, said Bill Schottenstein, a principal in Arshot Investment, which helped develop the Brewers Yard apartments and owns Brewery District properties through partnerships.

People know when they move into the area that they'll be living among businesses, he said, but then they decide they want to change the neighborhood.

One of his partnerships owns a building next to Wentzel's bait store. Schottenstein prefers that there not be a bar there. But as a member of the Brewery District Commission, he supported Wentzel's plan.

"I'm concerned about Major Woody's," Schottenstein said. "It's not good for the area. That's the last vestige of what the area was."

Last year, residents of nearby condominiums and the Liberty Place apartments told city officials about noise, fights and other problems spilling from Major Woody's. But the city decided not to ask the state to yank the nightclub's liquor license.

Wentzel said his plan is much different from Major Woody's.

James V. Maniace, the zoning board's chairman, said Wentzel is proposing a neighborhood bar, not a nightclub. But he was one of the three board members who voted against the parking variance and said residents' arguments helped sway him.